This picture of the Harbor sub was taken about six months after I had gone to my first meeting as a union officer on something being proposed called the "Alameda Corridor", where I with someone whom I would later work with a lot in my seconc career. They wanted to know what kinds of delays and operational issues we'd run into on the harbor branckes, how much time it took, how long we blocked crossings...

All of the lines to the Harbor (the UP, former PE, and SP Alameda Street) operated at restricted speed/rule 93, on most segments. Initially they looked at "going over" with overpasses on the Alameda Corridor at much lower cost than the ultimate trench. These routes were already becoming "plugged" with traffic while blocking hundreds of road/rail intersections every day.

The irony of the Alameda Corridor is that it was initially planned on the "assumption" (back in the mid 80's) for the need to move up to an additional 100 China bound coal trains per week to the POLA/POLB. The container revolution with things like the ICTF and stack trains were still in there "infancy" and the container volumes the Alameda Corridor carries today weren't even much of an "afterthought" in the initial planning.

Thanks for taking the time to post all of your great rail memories on AP. Best part of my day viewing AP is when you post some of these great memories.